QUICK TAKES - March 7, 2009

For sale (still): one Old Master painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, dated 1518, which found no takers five weeks ago when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art put it on the block in New York.

“The Portrait of a Bearded Young Man” has since been put on consignment for a private sale, a museum spokeswoman says.

LACMA did better with its other big recent discard: Sir Joshua Reynolds’ 1775 painting “Saint Cecilia,” which fetched $650,000 -- somewhat beneath the estimate of $700,000 to $900,000. The buyer paid an additional required premium of $132,500.

LACMA plans to use the proceeds to buy other art.

-- Mike Boehm